Jianing Gan 7d and Aaron Ye 6d both won their first round matches in the Redmond Cup Finals at the US Go Congress Sunday afternoon. Gan, who is from Canada, was undefeated in the qualifiers, and is the defending champion in the Senior Division of the Redmond (under 18). His opponent Andrew Lu 6d is the current US Youth Champion, and lost only to Gan in the qualifiers. Lu was out for a win, and played strongly throughout today’s match, but ran into time trouble and ultimately had to resign. In the Junior Division (under 12) defending champion Aaron Ye, age 11, faced off against Canadian David Lu 6d, also 11. Lu is new to the Redmond, entering for the first time this year, and was undefeated in the qualifiers. Ye lost only to Lu, and was out for revenge in the finals. Lu stumbled early in the game, when Ye killed a large group in the corner, but kept up his resolve and created tremendous complications for Ye throughout the rest of the game, which hinged on a ko that almost turned the tide. Ye played steadily throughout though, and ultimately won by a large margin. The game was broadcast live on KGS, and drew 150 observers. Round two will be broadcast on Tuesday at 3pm PT, in the AGA Tournaments Room.

In the Youth Room at the Go Congress, today’s event was a lightning tournament, with ten minutes per player. 32 kids and teens played in the match, and table winners won $10 gift certificates to Congress go vendors. Shirley Lin 3P and Andy Liu 1P also held simuls. Justin Teng 6d won at the top lightning table, which included some of the strongest young players at congress. Jimmy Yang 5d, April Ye 1k, Yukino Takehara 2k, Austen Cao 9k, and Anson Hu won the other tables. Tomorrow’s events will be 9×9 and 13×13 tourneys, and professionals Myungwan Kim 9p and Mingjiu Jiang 7P will also hold simuls. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photos: top left: Andrew Lu 6d (l) vs. Jianing Gan 7d (r), photo by Phil Straus; bottom right: Youth Lightning Tourney, photo by Paul Barchilon.

The Japan Pair Go Association has just granted $3,600 to promote Pair Go in the United States next year, reports AGA Pair Go Coordinator Rachel Small. The grant is based on Small’s proposed annual Pair Go plan, which she hopes “will generate enthusiasm, increase the number of Pair Go events held annually, and help Pair Go players form strong partnerships, with the ultimate goal of advancing the culture of Pair Go in the US.” Included in the budget is prize money for the North American Pair Go Championship and the Youth-Adult Pair Go Tournament at the US Go Congress, the second annual Pair Go Tournament at the North American Go Convention, and two additional Pair Go tournaments over the next year. “These are very exciting plans but we need help to make them happen,” Small says. Financial incentives will be provided for an organizer/director for the Pair Go pro teaching workshop at this year’s Congress, a game-recorder for the top table Pair Go game, a volunteer to record video of Congress Pair Go events, and a video-editor to piece together the footage into a short promotional piece, as well as directors of two new Pair Go Tournaments. Those interested should contact Small at pairgo@usgo.org. -Photo by Steve Colburn: Pair Go contestants at the 2010 Go Congress in Colorado Springs.

The Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego’s summer day camp is including go lessons, for the second year in a row. Using equipment provided by the American Go Foundation, San Diego Go Club president Ted Terpstra reports that he’s “teaching beginners the basics of go, and having them playing games on small boards within 20 minutes.” Fifteen day campers are learning about go through Hikaru no Go episodes on Hulu, as well as with books. “The enthusiastic go players have sets available during free time for playing after learning the essentials,” Terpstra adds. Each week is a different age grouping with children in grades from kindergarten through 6th, the program is running for five weeks. -photo by Ted Terpstra: third and fourth graders learn go.

At this year’s US Go Congress, the Pair Go Tournament will include special festivities including an opening ceremony, and slide show, as well as a Best Dressed Competition. Pair Go players will also receive lapel pins featuring the new US Pair Go logo (at right, designed by graphic designer Wende Mate to show the “solidifying identity” of Pair Go in the US) “and other goodies,” reports AGA Pair Go Coordinator Rachel Small. In conjunction with the World Pair Go Association, ‘Pair Go Promotion Partner (PGPP) Passports’ will be launched in the US for the first time at the Congress. “The passport is a symbol of enthusiasm for promoting Pair Go, and will be stamped at each Pair Go event you attend to track your adventures in competitive Pair Go, starting with this Congress’s North American Pair Go Championship and Youth-Adult Pair Go Tournament,” says Small. To receive your passport at the Congress, apply for PGPP membership at the Congress website . After the Congress, a short video will be released highlighting the congress Pair Go events and celebrating the culture of Pair Go in the US. ‘Like’ AGA Pair Go on Facebook to see coverage of the Congress events, including tournament results and photos from the Best Dressed Competition. To contribute photos to be included in the slide show, email pairgo@usgo.org. Financial incentives will be provided for an organizer/director for the Pair Go pro teaching workshop at this year’s Congress, a game-recorder for the top table Pair Go game, a volunteer to record video of Congress Pair Go events, and a video-editor to piece together the footage into a short promotional piece. Those interested should contact Small at pairgo@usgo.org.

The American Go Honor Society (AGHS) has published their officer applications for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year. “Are you interested in joining the core team of one of the largest youth organizations dedicated to go,” asks Eric Chen, outgoing Co-President. The officer positions include Vice President, Treasurer, Promotion Head, Tournament Organizer, and Secretary. “This dedicated board of members will run the renowned annual School Team Tournament, in addition to several other events, and strive to spread the game of go amongst the youth of the U.S. Come join us in our go-craze frenzy! You never know where you might go,” adds Chen. Applications are due August 18th, and can be downloaded on the aghs website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.

The UK Go Challenge is a 13×13 nationwide event mounted by the British Go Association (BGA) since 2004 and modeled on the similar UK Chess Challenge, with the aim of encouraging youngsters to take up the game. Heats were run in schools through the year culminating in this weekend’s finals, in which children not taking part in the heats could also participate. They were held at Milton Church of England Primary School in Milton, near Cambridge, and were organized by BGA VP Tony Atkins. Click here for full results.

Though Selby was given a good chance of winning the (British) Channel 4 TV Child Genius competition, he lost out in the final to 11-year-old wordmeister and world Scrabble champion Shrinidhi Prakash. Click here for the episode, with playback (total playing time about 45mins with commercials; may not play everywhere), including footage (at about 5:30) of Selby at this year’s British Youth Go Championship.- Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal; photo by Tony Atkins; courtesy of British Go Association website

Both divisions of the Redmond Cup will come down to a showdown between the US and Canada at the Go Congress this year, with Jianing Gan 7d and David Lu 6d leading their age divisions, while Americans Andrew Lu 6d and Aaron Ye 5d placed second. In the Jr. Division, 11 year old David Lu, from Vancouver is new on the scene, and proved to be a force to be reckoned with, scoring a perfect record in the online finals. Lu’s skillful play left last year’s Redmond Champ, Aaron Ye, and this year’s current US Youth Go Champion Jeremy Chiu 5d to duke it out for second. Ye prevailed and will face Lu in a best two-out-of-three final live at the Go Congress in Tacoma. For an exciting match between Lu and Ye in the qualifiers, check out Guo Juan 5P’s insightful commentary on the members only game record included with this weeks E-J. Ye gets off to an early lead, but Lu stays the course and makes a big comeback in the end. Youth members can join the AGA for only $10, and receive free commentary like this every week.

“David started learning go when he was six, and loved the game immediately,” says Lu’s mother Jessie Fan. “Almost every summer, he goes to Beijing for go camp, where he has studied with Tian Feng Fang 9P for the last two summers. Currently, he doesn’t have much time for studying go, except for participating in the CGA (Canadian Go Association) Dragon League, as well as the City League. He just came back from the Canadian Open, where he was ranked 12th, and is the only one in the open division (6 – 7 Dan) who is under 15 years old.”

In the Senior Division, defending champion Jianing Gan is intent on holding his title. His showdown last year, with Calvin Sun 7d, resulted in two consecutive losses for Sun. Gan also fought superbly in the Tygem AGA pro certification test at the same time, and came within a match of going pro. Gan again has a perfect record going into the finals, having already faced and defeated his two biggest rivals: Calvin Sun and Andrew Lu 6d. Lu is having a good year, having finally overcome his longtime rival Calvin Sun, to take this year’s US Youth Go Championship title, and now also finishing second in the Redmond qualifier. Lu will get his chance against Gan again at congress, with a live broadcast on KGS, at 3 pm PST on August 4th, 5th and 8th in the AGA Tournaments Room. The Jr. Division matches will also be broadcast. The Redmond Cup is now in its 20th year, and was directed by Michael Bull. Twenty-three players competed in the Senior Division (12-17) with another ten competing in the Junior (under 12). -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photos: Upper Left, David Lu, by Jessie Fan; Lower Right Jianing Gan cementing his Redmond win at last year’s finals, by Paul Barchilon.

Richard Moseson 5k has been chosen as the American Go Foundation’s Teacher of the Year, winning a free trip to the US Go Congress in Tacoma, where he will be honored at the final awards banquet. “The most satisfying thing about introducing go to young kids has been seeing many of them become totally involved in the game, and eventually zipping past me in playing strength,” Moseson told the E-Journal. Moseson started the go club at Manlius Pebble Hill (MPH), in Manlius NY, when his two sons were both students at the school, in 2003, and has continued ever since. “At various times I’ve also run short eight-week sessions for students in the first grade and third grade classes, and we’ve had some of those students eagerly join the club when they reached middle school age,” Moseson reports. “I’m also running a club with Chinese elementary school age kids, at a ‘Chinese young adult ministry’ that meets every Friday evening for dinner and bible study. I meet with the kids for an hour before dinner.

“We had five students from our two clubs play in the annual Salt City Go Tournament last month (one of them won the C Division with a 4-0 record and another won three games and finished in third place). I have most of the students at both clubs playing on KGS now. We had two three-person teams from MPH participate in this year’s AGHS School Team Tournament, and they both finished with respectable 2-2 records. Some of the kids have come to play at some of the Syracuse Go Club weekly meetings as well. Membership at MPH has waxed and waned (our high has been 15 students), but I’ve had the satisfaction of seeing three of my students head off to college stronger than I am,” adds Moseson.

In addition to his current clubs, Moseson has run programs at other schools in the past, and has been active in the Syracuse go community. He has also served as an AGF Mentor for several years, helping new go programs across the nation with advice, support, and resources, via e-mail. “The AGF board faced a very tough decision this year,” reports President Terry Benson, “with four extremely strong candidates, each of whom fully deserved the award. Fortunately, we choose a new teacher every year, and the other candidates will all have a chance again next year.” -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photos by Richard Moseson: Upper left: Moseson; center: at the MPH club; bottom: at the Chinese Young Adult Ministry.

Spain: At the II Open de Bilbao on June 16, Kiichi Matsumoto 1k bested Miguel-Angel Antolinez 2d and Alejandro Menendez 8k placed third. KGS: On June 23, French player Tanguy Le Calve 5d (Welvang on KGS) led his nine-player team to victory against German team leader Oliver Wolf 4d (sinsai on KGS) in the French-German Youth Friendship Match. There were three players per age group (U18, U15, and U11) with the each team leader on board one. In the end, France triumphed 5-4. Live commentary on select games by Hwan In-seong 8d (including the match between Wolf and Le Calve) can be found here. Slovakia: Jan Simara 6d (right) dominated the Slovak Go Festival on June 23 while Ondrej Silt 6d came in second and Dominik Boviz 3d in third.— Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news